First Steps VI

[Arvid Sawyer]

Walking into Fairy Tail felt like a dream of sorts, at least until they were past the doors and inside.

Then it was… jarring, just a little bit.

He'd read about the Guild Hall of Fairy Tail. As the one considered to be the Number One Guild in Fiore, magazines and newspapers loved to talk about them, after all. It was why Arvid had decided to go with them. How could he not, when they were said to be some of the most interesting characters in the country and seemed to live lives full of adventures and just fun? It was all that he wanted and seemingly every source of information had confirmed as much.

So, when he walked into the hall and saw people at tables, in silence, he felt it was all very… off. There was muttering and such from around, but he'd seen more cheerfulness on his father at the dinner table after a messed up project, which was saying something. Certainly, a contrasting picture to the one Arvid had in his mind, but they do say you shouldn't meet your heroes. 'Maybe they just aren't always like I heard,' he reasoned and he could live with that.

Life didn't always have to be parties and excitement, he supposed.

He was already having the time of his life anyway even before arriving at Fairy Tail, so it was fine. Squaring his shoulders once more, he locked his eyes on the best place he saw to ask how to go about joining… Or trying to join, at least. That place was the bar, since everything else was an open hall with tables and doors without signs leading somewhere else in the Guild.

Then he started walking before the urge to get the fuck out of there took over.

Nervously looking to the side, Arvid saw that Saul was following, which didn't really help him calm down. Something that helped even less was the gazes he saw being directed their way. Nobody seemed to really care about them, but even the disinterested glances made him want to bolt. 'No backing down now,' he told himself.

He hadn't gotten that far just to give up without trying, no way.

So, slowly, he moved through the Guild towards the bar counter. As he did, however, he looked around, seeing many of the mages he'd read so much about. For every name, every person, he recognized, Arvid felt more and more giddy. Some of these were people he'd grown up reading about. Even some of the less impressive members made him want to go up to them and ask for autographs.

He wouldn't though, because if he got his way, he'd be one of them soon enough.

If things didn't work out though, he might just go for it.

"Excuse me," he called softly, almost choking on those two simple words when he reached the counter. He placed a hand on the wooden surface, more to support himself, if metaphorically, than anything else. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Saul standing straight and stiff. He didn't remember ever seeing his friend like that.

"Yes, how can I help you?" the girl behind the counter asked with a very professional smile. Arvid brows twitched before he held back a frown, noticing the way she seemed to want nothing else but to not smile. He'd seen that expression plenty of times.

It reminded him entirely too much of smiles he'd seen on himself, reflected on windows and other things around his house. It was the smile he'd give his parents when he was told he needed to work instead of doing something else he'd wanted to. It was the smile he'd give his friends when he had to tell them he needed to work instead of hanging out with them. It was the smile he gave clients and people around town when he was having a bad day.

'Maybe something happened?' he wondered to himself. Considering the subdued look of the Guild all around, it was looking likely. Then again, he didn't know any of these people and he was never a people person, even if he'd learned to deal with them because of his job.

"We wanted to join the Guild," he said, feeling a little calmer with something else on his mind other than crippling nerves. "Do you know what we need to do for that?" he asked, giving the girl his best smile. Maybe it'd help her feel better. God knew, a nice client and a friendly face were just what he'd wanted and needed when he was having a bad day.

He grinned a little wider when he saw her smile turn a little more honest, if bashful. The girl looked down and to the side then, a bit of pink dusting her cheeks. Maybe she realized that her smile hadn't quite worked? Nothing to be embarrassed about, really. Everyone had that kind of day once in a while.

"Of course, let me just… I know we have the application form somewhere here," she mumbled, looking behind the counter. That's when Arvid heard someone clearing their throat. He turned to the side and… 'Macao Conbolt,' he recognized easily. An old member, if he recalled correctly, user of fire magic. Saul was never a fan, probably because he wished his Ash Magic would just be straight fire magic like that instead.

"The forms are over there, Laurel," the man commented, looking like he wanted to smile. Instead, it came out more like a sad grimace, however. "Welcome, you two. It's… kind of a bad time, but not welcoming you would be wrong," he said then, running his hand over his slicked back blue hair. "You should still be welcomed."

"Thank you," Arvid said, before the man's words sunk it. "But, don't we need to pass a test or something?"

"What?" Conbolt said, blinking at him. "No, you are in. As I said, welcome," he added, giving them a forced smile and then turning to his drink on the counter.

"... Just like that?" Arvid asked himself, hope and excitement coursing through him.

"Just like that?" Saul said to his side at the same time, disbelief clear in his voice.

[}-o-{]

[Saulus Lambent]

Was this a joke?

"Just like that," Macao Conbolt answered with a weak chuckle.

He was laughing, so it was probably a joke.

Or at least that would be what he would have thought if the smile in the man's face had reached his eyes. Something told Saulus that the notorious fire mage wasn't quite in the mood for pranks at the moment. That only left him even more confused.

Wasn't this supposed to be the greatest guild in the entirety of Fiore? He knew full well how many hopeful mages applied to guilds all over the country. There were stories about deadly trials and massive quotas to meet if one wanted to enter, let alone remain at the guild for any amount of time. There were even stories about Phantom Lord's rite of passage being quite brutal, and that was just one of the almost a hundred guilds in the country.

True, not all of them had the same standards, small guilds usually took as many people as they could to fill the success quota mission with the council and not lose their license. Something that happened fairly often given that new guilds were created and disbanded pretty much weekly.

Saul took a moment to calm himself. He had been shaking and jittery since they got to Magnolia. The whole thing was clearly getting to him more than he wanted to admit. That one small part of himself swelled at being told that he might have a spot in the guild.

Saulus crushed that part of him and sent it to the deepest part of his brain. It wouldn't do to get his hopes up when the man in front of them might just be playing a mean joke on them. If that was the case, then he would make sure to beat the shit out of him. Famous wizard or not there are things you just don't do to someone. He knew how important this whole thing was for Arvid, after all.

"We are at Fairy Tail, right?" he couldn't help but ask. It was a stupid question, he had seen the banners just outside. Still, it was better to just make sure. He knew that they were based in Magnolia, but perhaps this was a branch building or something.

Macao blinked at him once more at the random question. Arvid raised an eyebrow at him. The bartender… the bartender didn't even hear him still sneaking glances at Arvid from the side while looking through a stack of papers and blushing occasionally. They were probably going to be waiting a while for those forms, by the looks of it.

"You know," he continued. "The Fairy Tail. Number One Guild in all Fiore and home of some of the strongest mages around."

"I mean, I would hope we are at it. I don't think I drank enough to change Guilds last night again… I hope," Conbolt added as he scratched the back of his head, only to stop for a second and look around to double-check. "No, yeah, we are at the Guild," he said with more certainty this time, nodding to himself. Saul didn't really know how to respond to that. How much had he drunk the previous night to put that into doubt?

"And we, two strangers that just walked through the front door, are going to be allowed to join," he said, trying to take the conversation to the point he was trying to make. He felt himself frown as he tried to wrap his head around the whole situation.

This was the top guild in the country. If they accepted whoever crossed their doors then there was no way the guild wouldn't be bloated by this point. Reputation was everything for a Guild, it pretty much defined how many quests the Council and the population sent your way. The less famous one was, the less priority one got, the worse quality the quests they received were. Which meant that they made less of a profit. Guilds didn't pay for themselves often, after all. It was quite an investment.

So, surely he was missing something, right? There was simply no way that the top Guild in the country would let them in just by showing at the front door.

"Just like that?" he asked with some emphasis. Trying to find some order within himself as his entire worldview about mages crumbled before his very eyes.

"Yes? I mean, you still need to complete the forms to make it official and the Guild Master has to approve it. We only skip those steps if a known member we trust puts a word in, but yeah," Conbolt replied, looking like he didn't quite understand what was going on. What the fuck?

"Just like that." Saul tried to confirm, waiting for him to laugh or remember something or…

"Just like that," Conbolt repeated once more with a shrug.

"No deadly test of impossible odds," Saul inquired.

"Not that I am aware of, at least," Conbolt answered with a slightly more cheerful smirk.

"...No secret test that you are putting us through right now to see if we are worthy?" To that, the man snorted but shook his head all the same. "No life-like illusions that make us think we are in the guild but we are talking to a dumpster in an alley, perhaps?" Saul tried again, running out of ideas.

"...Shit, that is a good one. I'll bring it up to the Master next time. But, no. No test involved," Conbolt yet again denied while he scratched his chin in thought. He genuinely seemed to be going over that "idea" in his mind. Had Saul screwed over the next person?

Eh, who cared anyway? He had more important things to deal with, like how his entire worldview was crashing down and it turned out that the whole thing was just a matter of filling a piece of paper and talking with the Master. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought he was just applying for a regular job interview.

Arvid shook his head back and forth like he was watching a ping pong match. His friend looked like he couldn't decide if he should be happy and relieved or be skeptical like Saul himself. He could relate on some level. It was all… Very confusing and it went against everything he'd ever known… Or thought he'd known.

That was all? After all the doubts he'd had. All those times he'd squashed his own dreams and hopes because surely it was nigh impossible for him to achieve them, he could have just come and asked to join? All those times he'd read wistfully through the magazines about mages, he could have been part of those articles? All those times he'd mocked his own magic because it was nowhere as impressive as theirs…

"Bullshit," he answered eloquently.

"What my friend is trying to ask here is…" Arvid joined, probably noticing his quickly declining mood… and sanity. "Is there something else we should be doing other than the forms and getting the Master's approval? Is the Master going to interview us or something like that?" he asked then, glancing towards the girl behind the counter, who hadn't given them the papers yet.

Saul was fairly sure she was buying herself time to stare dreamily at Arvid.

He was almost grateful for that because he needed a moment to calm himself down or he'd flip. What the fuck was even going on? What was reality anymore? Saul had to wonder if he was still sleeping on the train there, considering how much sense the world was making. Surely…

"I mean, not unless you look suspicious or anything, which you don't, really," Conbolt answered, looking both a little confused and amused.

"Then… how come the Guild isn't bigger? This is the best Guild in Fiore," Arvid asked, going for the real question. Saul could have hugged him for that. He'd have thought his friend would have jumped at the chance to join that easily, but apparently, the situation made so little sense even Arvid was questioning it. If that didn't explain everything, Saul didn't know what would.

"I can answer that one," a voice from behind him said, making him and Arvid turn to look. A teenage girl – a few years younger than them, Saul would say – sat behind them at the counter while they were distracted apparently. "It's just that almost no one comes to apply. It is easier to try their luck at a smaller or less known guild from the beginning than doing so after being booted out from another. Doesn't look good in your curriculum, you see? Most people just think that there is no point and give up before ever giving it a try," Saulus' eye twitched. This girl. Surely she didn't know… "So, you could say that we are basically suffering from success," the girl finished with a smirk that looked far too cocky for someone her size and age.

Saul was pretty sure she did know, somehow.

Magic, maybe?

"I… see," was all he could say. The girl snorted at his reply, waving a hand to get her long brown hair out of the way and drinking from a mug that came from somewhere, fully cementing his decision of not liking the girl at all. His nose scrunched up a bit at the smell, he had never liked alcohol all that much. Then again, they were at a bar, but it wasn't that late. How were people already drinking?

"Yeah, that is about it. That doesn't mean we don't get our fair share of new members every now and then. Or that we accept everyone, for that matter, but we usually leave that to the Master, he is a fairly good judge of character, so it tends to work itself out in the end," Conbolt added as he sat on one of the stools and peeked through the papers himself. It seemed that the fact the bartender was taking too long wasn't just his imagination. Arvid and his golden puppy look be damned, it was always the same when he tried to play the nice customer role.

"Well, here's hoping we make the cut," Arvid commented, with a nervous smile, looking like he didn't dare get his hopes up just yet. "Did you find those forms?" he added towards the girl behind the counter, smiling innocently, not a sign of annoyance on his face. Saul would have found that both amusing, in his friend's part, and annoying, in the barmaid's. However, he was too busy still processing what was going on.

'Seriously, what the fuck?'

The girl didn't look like she even remembered that they were waiting for that. All that Arvid's question had achieved was for the girl to blush all over again. His friend could be too nice sometimes so it was up to him to get the ball rolling. But did he really want to? He really wanted things to start making sense, if he were honest.

He was almost afraid of saying anything in case it made things worse… somehow. Who could honestly know, considering the bullshit they were just told? Certainly not Saulus, that was for sure.

"Do you need help or something?" Arvid asked, with as much politeness as he could muster. Poor bastard didn't know that he couldn't have made things more difficult for himself and the girl if he'd tried. It was almost funny, if Saul's mind had been playing catch up for the last who knew how many minutes. Actually, had it even been minutes?

The girl started stuttering something in response before the other girl, the one that was drinking… was that beer? Anyway, that girl barked out a laugh at the way the barmaid was acting. Not that Saulus blamed her, really. He himself might have made a comment or something, but he was almost grateful for Arvid's himbo ass.

At least that was normal.

"Thank you," Arvid replied when the girl finally found two functioning brain cells to rub together and pass over the forms for them. His friend added a bright smile for good measure, clearly very happy that their chances were looking fairly good now.

It was super effective.

The barmaid looked like she could have melted then and there.

"Damn," the drinking teen said, letting out an appreciative whistle. "You are gonna be the bane of girls and women here, aren't you, pretty boy?" she asked, but Arvid was too busy reading over the form to really pay her any mind. His friend and his hyperfocusing, Saulus almost lamented. "Anyway, can I get another beer, Laurel, or are you gonna stare at the pretty boy for another hour?"

"It's a little early for drinking that much, don't you think, Cana?" Conbolt commented with a frown while the barmaid glared at the girl. Saul guessed he hadn't been too wrong with his age estimation for her. She was probably sixteen… Seventeen sounded like a stretch even if she was a late bloomer. Barely drinking age as it was, he was sure, especially if that wasn't part of the comment.

"Meh," was the girl's response. "So?" she directed at Laurel, which got her a huff before the barmaid got to it.

"I know things are…" Conbolt started before seeming to give up on whatever he'd been saying. It wasn't because of the way the girl's expression turned somehow both sad and angry at the same time though, since he'd looked away with forlorn grimace of his own. 'We are missing some context here, for sure,' a part of Saul's mind – a not scrambled part – noticed. "You shouldn't drink that much, Cana," Conbolt decided to go with, which sounded weak both because of his choice of words and because of his tone in general.

Where he'd looked serious and firm before, now he looked like a man that had given up. Certainly a contrast with the forces of nature that Saul had imagined all Fairy Tail mages to be. Then again, this was a much more familiar setting, so there was that. Considering that, he almost felt like they were intruding or something.

All of a sudden, he found himself envying Arvid's ability to ignore the world around him when he had something on his mind. The guy didn't seem to be noticing what was going on around him, still pouring over the form he'd been given. If only Saulus were that lucky. Alas, he was cursed with a different kind of brain.

He did notice some of the others sitting at the long tables closer to them also looked up morosely at the girl. Even then, none of them seemed to have the energy or mood to do something about it. Most of them just kept on nursing their own drinks with long faces.

'Yeah, definitely something is going on here,' he thought to himself trying to understand. Because everything was better than his previous thought process after all.

Conbolt sighed and shook his head as the girl just proceeded to chug down the beer mug she was given, looking defiantly into the man's eyes all the while. Giving Cana a defeated look, the man stood up and ran a hand over his hair, as if trying to slick it back even more. Then he turned towards Arvid, who was still looking at his form rather intently, and Saulus, who was just taking that moment to try and organize his thoughts.

"Follow me this way. Master is in his office right now, so you can finish your forms there. Might as well," the man said, sounding like he wanted to sigh again as he turned around and walked towards a set of stairs at the right corner of the guild and past what he assumed was the quest board which was filled with dozens of unfinished works.

That finally snapped Arvid out of his trance while Saulus almost trailed behind Conbolt out of instinct alone. His friend still seemed to be trying to read the form though, as if trying to find a catch or something that could cause them problems. Saulus, for his part, noticed the figure of a blond dude leaning on the railing of the floor above them. Just past a second set of stairs to the left of the bar itself. The guy, who by his looks alone SAulus would say was a few years older than them, continued frowning down at them, tracking their movements like a hawk from above all the way up the stairs adjacent to the floor he was at.

The look prompted him to glare right back, just because. Nothing was making sense anymore, it seemed, so he wasn't in the mood to be friendly. Especially with an asshole that was giving him the mean eye for no reason, that was for sure.

The stare-down continued all the way up their set of stairs that led to a single wooden and metal ridged door at the top of it. Conbolt knocked on said door and said some words but he failed to pay attention to them as Saulus saw the blond teen seemingly lose interest in the two of them. With a scoff, the asshole turned back and sat alone at one of the tables while putting some headphones in.

With a sigh, Saulus closed his eyes and focused on the man in front of them. Conbolt started mentioning some of the Guild installations to them while they waited for the Master to be ready to attend them. Quite a few of them sounded interesting. Saulus imagined Arvid would be visiting the library soon enough and he might as well check if there was something interesting there himself later too.

For now, though, his focus was solely on other matters.

It was time for them to meet the person who led the strongest Mage Guild.

[} Chapter End {]

Adrian: Nothing like getting your worldview completely shattered on the most important day of your life, amirite?

Arc: Also, arriving at the Guild at the worst possible time… I wonder how many of you remember the why of the gloomy atmosphere.

Adrian: Hm, I don't think there's that much to say. Chapter more or less speaks for itself, I think… Arc?

Arc: Hopefully, you enjoy it as we reach the end of this arc. You surely know the deal by now, remember to leave a comment and tell us what you think.

Random Adrian Question: Anyone in particular you are looking forward to seeing our MCs meeting?

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ